The old interior angel

In his poem The Old Interior Angel from Fire in the Earth, David Whyte writes of an experience he had trekking in the mountains of Tibet/Nepal. Alone, he came to a deep chasm, spanned by an old bridge:

“The taut cables snapped
and the bridge planks
concertina-ed
into a crazy jumble
over the drop,
four hundred feet
to the craggy
stream.”

He stops and sits, afraid to cross that expanse.

How many times have I stopped at a chasm, afraid to cross and discover the wonder and mystery that awaits me on the other side? How many times have I sat, paralyzed, unable to move forward, unwilling to go back? How many times have a waited for an old interior angel to come awaken within me the courage to cross?

That angel is always present on the inside. It’s just that we sometimes need her to show up in the outer world to remind us.

For David, that angel took the form of:

“…the old mountain woman
with her stooped gait,
her dark clothes
and her dung basket
clasped to her back.”

Who…

“went straight across
that shivering chaos
of wood
and broken steel
in one movement.”

We all have the interior angel. And, from time to time, we all need that angel to step into physical form and lead us across that shivering bridge. And if we are paying attention, that angel will show up. What form she might take, we cannot know.

“One day the hero
sits down,
afraid to take
another step,
and the old interior angel
limps slowly in
with her no-nonsense
compassion
and her old secret
and goes ahead.

‘Namaste’ [“I greet the God in you”]
you say
and follow.”

Here’s to following that old interior angel across the rickety bridges of our journey.

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Posted by Edward Mills | Filed Under Blocks, Emotions, Fear, Inspiration, Joy, Poetry